Steel Retirees Offered Deeply Discounted Health Insurance
By Thomas Olson, The Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review
June 08--Up to
45,000 steel-industry retirees whose health insurance benefits were
shredded by their bankrupt former employers will have access to deeply
discounted coverage, starting July 1.
Retirees ages
55 through 64 and their dependents in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are eligible for federally
subsidized benefits worth tens of millions of dollars -- and potentially
as much as about $5 billion, experts said on
Thursday.
A federal bankruptcy judge in New York this week
authorized creation of the Steel Retiree VEBA (Voluntary Employee
Beneficiary Association) Trust, based on Bethlehem Steel
Corp.'s bankruptcy filing 10 years ago.
Under the trust,
retirees pay 27.5 percent of their medical, prescription-drug, dental and
vision benefits cost. The federal government pays the other 72.5
percent.
Eligible retirees are not restricted to former Bethlehem
Steel workers and dependents. The group includes retirees from more than
50 bankrupt steel companies, including Edgewater Steel,
Republic Steel, LTV,
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and others.
A key qualifier is that the
steel company must have had its pension terminated and turned over to the
Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp.
"Anyone who worked for those companies can
participate," said Gary Kaplan, a bankruptcy attorney at
Farella Braun + Martel LLP, the San Francisco law
firm representing the trust in the Bethlehem Steel bankruptcy
case.
"The real purpose of the VEBA is to provide coverage while
retirees are in the pre-Medicare period of age 55 to 64," said
Kaplan. "They are the ones who fall between the cracks: They are not old
enough for Medicare and can hardly afford health-care coverage
-- if they can get it at all."
Once retiree reach 65,
Medicare takes over their coverage, but their dependents remain
covered under the VEBA trust for another two years, said
Kaplan.
The federal subsidy stems from health-coverage tax credits
made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the
economic stimulus law passed in 2009.
The law allowed a similar
VEBA to be established for retirees of bankrupt auto-parts companies, said
Cathy Cone, managing partner of Cone Insurance
Group -- the Houston-based broker acting as the
human-resources liaison between steel-company beneficiaries and Marsh & McLennan Cos., the
plan administrator.
"We're reaching out to the newspapers to reach as
many people as we can to find out about this," said Cone. "This (steel
VEBA) even gives you choices and coverage options, depending on your
needs."
Aetna Inc.
provides the health and drug coverage. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. provides the
dental coverage. And VSP Vision Care Inc. provides vision
coverage.
Officials at the United Steelworkers either declined to
comment or could not be reached.
HELP BOX
For more
information about the health coverage, visit www.conebenefits.com/steel or
call 855-407-8335.
In addition, experts involved in the coverage
will conduct road shows in Western Pennsylvania in late June. Each day
has two sessions -- 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 4
p.m. Here is the schedule:
--Pittsburgh,
June 25: Sheraton Station Square,
300 W. Station Square Drive
--Greensburg,
June 26: Ramada Inn, 100
Sheraton Drive
--Johnstown, June 27;
Holiday Inn, 250 Market
St.
--Mars, June 28: Four Points by
Sheraton/Pittsburgh North, 910 Sheraton
Drive
--Pittsburgh, June 29:
Sheraton Station Square, 300 W. Station
Square Drive
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(c)2012 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg,
Pa.)